A 4/25/09 Wall Street Journal article has insights into getting good decisions from groups. It resonates with the goals of the Best Practices Committee. How Group Decisions End Up Wrong-Footed For committees and other boards to work well, they must be made up of people with differing perspectives and experience who are unafraid to speak […]
Opinion
Planners’ Assumptions about Future Household Size and Car Usage May Prove Wrong
Northampton’s Planning Department observes that average household size in the city has fallen from 2.86 in 1980 to 2.14 in 2007. They believe this trend will continue: Average household size (people per dwelling unit) will continue to decline. This will be driven by decreases in average family size, the number of children and number of […]
March 10: Zoning Revisions Committee to Meet; Our Suggestions
Northampton’s Office of Planning and Development is circulating this announcement: The Zoning Revisions Committee (advisory to the Planning Board) will meet Tuesday March 10 at 7 PM in City Council Chambers. Please Contact Carolyn Misch at cmisch@northamptonma.gov for further information. The Zoning Revisions Committee is charged with recommending zoning changes that implement the Sustainable Northampton […]
“Degraded” Wetlands Can Get a Lot Worse
Over the past year or so, Kohl Construction and even some members of the Conservation Commission have noted that the wetlands and buffer zone off North Street are “degraded with masonry and other construction and road building debris, as well as invasive plant species”. While it’s true this area is not perfect, it’s still an […]
Gazette Column: “Keeping our schools small is worth a large effort”
Today’s Gazette includes a column from Greg Kerstetter (email), who teaches fifth grade at the R.K. Finn Ryan Road School in Northampton: Lesson Plan: Keeping our schools small is worth a large effort Here’s what the [Strategic Planning Commitee] could not agree on: whether to close an elementary school to save money… Members of the […]
Northampton Redoubt: “Mr. Kunstler, is all infill good?”
Daryl LaFleur published the following interview with James Howard Kunstler on Northampton Redoubt this weekend. Kunstler is the author of The Geography of Nowhere, written “Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up […]
Our Ad in Today’s Gazette: A Review of Our Objections to the Kohl Condo Proposal
Here is our ad as it appears on page 3 of the A section in today’s Daily Hampshire Gazette (download a high-resolution PDF). This ad summarizes many of our key objections to the Kohl condo proposal for North Street. The text is reproduced below the ad image with links added so you can explore the […]
Video: “Low Impact Development: Performance Results and Implementation in the Field”; Summer vs. Winter Performance of Stormwater Systems
Here is a Google video of “Low Impact Development: Performance Results and Implementation in the Field”, a presentation from the Smart Growth – Smart Energy Conference 2008, a conference held on 12/12/08 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. This presentation includes a comparison of the merits of various stormwater management systems. Some are much […]
“Innovative Non-Zoning Approaches to Encourage Smart Growth and Protect Public Health” – Video with Wayne Feiden and Bruce Young
Wayne Feiden and Bruce Young from Northampton’s planning department were among the presenters at the Smart Growth – Smart Energy Conference 2008, a conference held on 12/12/08 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Feiden and Young presented in a session titled, “Innovative Non-Zoning Approaches to Encourage Smart Growth and Protect Public Health”. NSNA’s Adam […]
The Towing – An Open Letter from Ellen LaFleche
We would like to share with you this open letter to Mayor Clare Higgins from Clark Avenue resident Ellen LaFleche. To All It Concerns, My husband works as an activities director at a local retirement community, and although our own retirement is more than a decade away, we spend lots of time talking about where […]